Peg - Right on. Acupuncture needles come in a sterile package, they are used ONCE and then discarded. They are so thin that you hardly feel them going in (sometimes a slight prickling sensation or a very small stinging for a second or two). The amount of electrical energy that exits the body through the needle can be quite dramatic, sometimes raising a small red swelling around the base of the needle's entry...or it can be very subtle. Sometimes you feel it happening, sometimes you don't.

Gargoyle must be talking about Vinnie, the "acupuncturist" who works in the alley behind Ed's Diner and uses coat hangers to terminate pregnancies....

I can hardly imagine how the conventional acupuncture treatment could possibly hurt anyone, and the fact that it does help in a number of ailments has been public knowledge for so long in so many parts of the world that to call it "quackery" is an indication of nothing more than the most benighted ignorance of the subject or blind prejudice, which is pretty much the same thing.

- LH